Helena backpays firefighters $900K after arbitration finds city’s new wage system unfair

Historically, wages were determined by the median income of Class I Montana cities, or towns of over 10,000 people, such as Great Falls and Billings, arbitration documents state.

The fire union advocated to keep that system during its 2024-2027 contract, but Helena proposed a blanket 3.5% increase across all ranks. The union's initially proposed wages would have cost the city $486,800, according to the arbitration documents.

What followed was more than a year of back-and-forth negotiations and arbitration that ended in the union's favor in December. The backpay will start from when the union contract would have gone into effect in July 2024. Arbitration is a process used during an impasse in negotiations in which a third party resolves a dispute and both parties are legally bound to the settlement.

“It’s unfortunate that we had to fight for so long to get what we deserve, but we are happy with the result,” said Helena’s fire union president Dave Maslowski, who is also a lieutenant firefighter. “It’s the same thing we’ve always asked for decades: median pay, fair pay.”

“The public interest is well-served by paying fire department employees a market rate calculated based on the median wages of comparable positions in other fire departments operated by first class cities in Montana,” the arbitration award document states. “In addition, the record shows that the City is in good financial condition and that it can afford to pay the wage rates proposed by the Union. In fact, the City has never claimed an inability to pay.”

Fire staff strained

During negotiations, Helena firefighters continued working under the city’s proposed wage systems, many feeling underpaid and frustrated, Maslowski said.

According to him, tension between Helena and the fire union has been growing for years, and wages and staffing are the usual culprit.

Despite having 36 approved fire suppression staff, or traditional firefighters, only 33 positions are currently filled, and three are being kept vacant for at least a few months, both Maslowski and city officials said.

Maslowski said the city’s administrative staff internally decided not to fill the positions. The positions were left vacant due to “budgetary constraints,” city spokesperson Amanda Opitz said.

It would be one thing if the fire department was flush with staff, Maslowski said. However, he said the fire stations were worn thin, sometimes even needing to turn down calls because all their personnel were already busy.

Currently, analysis from the city’s Fire Master Plan calls for daily staffing of 13 people across both stations, Opitz said.

But right now, Helena has just seven firefighters on call at a time on any given day, she and Maslowski said.

The seven-firefighter limit, a reduction from eight, was proposed to ease the financial hit, City Manager Alana Lake outlined in a March 3 memo to the Helena City Commission. Because only three people would be at Station 2, that firehouse wouldn’t be able to deploy multiple response teams at once, she said.

The bulk of Helena’s calls for service are medical, Maslowski said. That means the majority of the calls the firefighters need to turn down are medical, too. Passed-up calls are usually deferred to other first responders, such as EMTs from St. Peter’s Health.

“It’s concerning,” Maslowski said. “If something’s really wrong, like cardiac arrest, it comes down to the seconds. We need to be there.”

Calculating what's owed

Though the arbitration award was made in December, it took months to hand-calculate what each firefighter was owed, Opitz said.

“What remains to be determined is what is owed on back interest on their pensions,” she said. “There is no ‘upload’ option for the MPERA retirement system, so this again includes individual manual entry.”

The divvied-up $900,000 lump sum will hit firefighters’ checking accounts Friday, but it will have at least a $1.2 million impact on the fiscal year 2026 budget, Opitz said.

Added pension interest could make that number tick higher, Finance Director Sheila Danielson said, for a roughly estimated total of $1.4 million.

How to pay?

Eliminating the three vacant full-time equivalent (FTE) positions could help offset costs, Lake’s March 3 memo said. City staff already moved $120,000 in fire levy funds to the General Fund.

The payment will come with consequences for the FY26 budget, Lake warned commissioners, citing a shortfall of hundreds of thousands of dollars due to unexpectedly low property taxes. It also thins funds as Helena calculates raises for other city employees, including the non-union administrative staff at the fire department.

“The fire collective bargaining agreement resulted in a substantial and ongoing increase above historical budget adjustments,” Lake said. “While Finance staff have identified reductions and transfers to minimize the shortfall, full absorption of these costs will require continued review of staffing levels, General Fund allocations, and future labor negotiations.”

At a Wednesday administrative meeting, Danielson said funds from the 2018 fire mill levy, which were intended to primarily fund both additional firefighter staffing and equipment, had been steadily outpaced by firefighter wage increases.

She estimated in fiscal year 2027, the mill levy funds would be informally split at 80-20, with the lion’s share going to just keeping up with firefighter paychecks. In a profession where one fire engine costs well over $1 million, savings for equipment need to be in place, she said.

Third fire station and future

On top of all that, construction of Helena’s $7 million third fire station is currently underway, which had been called for since 2006 as response times grew well over the recommended 8 1/2 minutes, a third party analysis found. It would also be the only station north of the railroad tracks, which can cause notorious delays if trains block a south station’s route to a northern resident’s emergency.

Money for the third fire station narrowly was approved by voters in 2024, but voters struck down a levy on the same ballot that would have funded additional firefighter and police officer positions. The station is expected to be built by June 2027, but there are no firefighters to staff it.

To Maslowski, all signs point to another mill levy, or some other way to get Helena Fire more manpower. He said he understands that city staff have to do their jobs, but he doesn’t want to turn down any more calls and erode trust in public safety.

"I hope this is a chance for our relationship to improve," Maslowski said of the city.

As for the city, Opitz said Helena is interested in finding a solution.

“Both the city of Helena and fire union are looking forward to exploring funding and staffing options to address this shortfall, support our employees, continue to provide high-quality services to residents and prepare for operationalizing Station 3,” Opitz said.